Generally described, computing devices utilize a communication network, or a series of communication networks, to exchange data. Companies and organizations operate computer networks that interconnect a number of computing devices to support operations or provide services to third parties. The computing systems can be located in a single geographic location or located in multiple, distinct geographic locations (e.g., interconnected via private or public communication networks). Specifically, data centers or data processing centers, herein generally referred to as a “data center,” may include a number of interconnected computing systems to provide computing resources to users of the data center. The data centers may be private data centers operated on behalf of an organization or public data centers operated on behalf, or for the benefit of, the general public.
To facilitate increased utilization of data center resources within the data centers, virtualization technologies may allow a single physical computing device to host one or more instances of virtual machines that appear and operate as independent computing devices to users of a data center. With virtualization, software applications running on the physical computing device can create, maintain, delete, or otherwise manage virtual machine instances in a dynamic manner.
Use of the data centers in increasing numbers has created increased demand for the computing resources. Even with virtualization technologies, the number of available resources that can be provided to the virtual machines is limited, at least in part, by the software applications managing the virtual machine instances in the physical computing devices. The cost associated with changing the existing hardware resources for better hardware components can be a considerable expense.